You may not be familiar with the name of eccentric millionaire Dean Kamen, but you will know his most famous invention - the Segway. Kamen has achieved far more in his life than just creating the Segway, but even if he never did anything else, that creation will keep all of his bills paid forever. Kamen paid an eye-wateringly high price of $2.5m for a tiny two-acre island called North Dumpling off the east coast of the USA in 1986. He wanted to build a wind turbine to fuel it, but New York refused to give him permission, so he did the only sensible thing. He declared independence.
Kamen's old friend (and then-serving President) George Bush jokingly signed a treaty of non-aggression between the USA and Dumpling Island, and from there Kamen has created a flag, a miniature replica of Stonehenge, a national anthem, a daily newspaper, and a one-boat navy. Visitors to his island are invited to commemorate the occasion by leaving an imprint of their own buttocks. No, we're not joking!
In the US, the average spent on an engagement ring is $6,351 but how do these figures compare with our favorite celebrities? The answer: they don't. As the diamonds increase in size, obviously the price tag appreciates handsomely. Well, we've compiled a list of some of the most expensive celebrity engagement rings.
This list would be nothing without Kim Kardashian's rock from Kanye, which clocked in at around a cool $4 million when he presented it to her at his stadium proposal in October 2013. Unfortunately, though, the 15-carat sparkler was among the jewelry stolen during Kim's infamous Paris robbery in 2016.
Jennifer Lopez's husband Alex Rodriguez popped the question to the singer, and he really had to step it up to outshine her previous engagement rings—and wow, did he deliver. The baseball star proposed with a reported 15-20 carat emerald cut stunner set on a platinum band that was estimated at $5 million. It's getting harder and harder not to be fooled by the rocks she's got...
It should come as no surprise that Beyonce herself totes one of the world's highest-valued diamonds. Weighing in at 24 carats, Jay reportedly paid around $5 million (now worth $6,047,013) for Bey's flashy emerald-cut ring back in 2008.
Anna Kournikova's relationship Latin music artist Enrique Iglesias since the early '00s has been one of the most lowkey celebrity relationships to date. That is with the exception of her $5,400,000 engagement ring that made headlines in 2004. Now, worth a whopping $7,443,596, the giant yellow stunner was spotted on Kournikova even during her tennis matches. (Pssst! It's rumored she got two rings from Iglesias. Prior to this, she sported an equally giant pink pear-shaped ring.)
Clocking in as the most expensive celebrity engagement ring, Mariah Carey's 35-carat bling from ex-fiancé James Packer reportedly cost a cool $10 million. And the "Obsessed" singer seemed to be a bit, well, obsessed with the jewel. She continued to wear the ring over a year post-breakup, and didn't part ways with the bauble until May 2018, selling it to a Los Angeles jeweler for $2.1 million.